David Parton (born David Eric Stanley Parton, 1948) is an English singer-songwriter and record producer from

Newcastle Under Lyme Newcastle-under-Lyme ( RP: , ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. The 2011 census population of the town was 75,082, whilst the wider borough had a population of 1 ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, England. He is also known as Des Parton, based on the initials of his first three names.

Career

Parton was the

frontman The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

of Strange Fox, who were nurtured by Tony Hatch in the early 1970s. Parton achieved songwriting success writing songs for Sweet Sensation in the mid-1970s, namely " Sad Sweet Dreamer" which was a number 1 single in the UK, and "Purely by Coincidence" which also charted. He

arranged In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestra ...

and co-produced both tracks with

Tony Hatch Anthony Peter Hatch (born 30 June 1939) is an English composer for musical theatre and television. He is also a songwriter, pianist, arranger and producer. Early life and early career Hatch was born in Pinner, Middlesex. Encouraged by his mus ...

and

Jackie Trent Yvonne Ann Burgess (6 September 1940 – 21 March 2015), better known by her stage name Jackie Trent, was an English singer-songwriter and actress. She was best known for co-writing (with Tony Hatch) several hits for Petula Clark in the 1960s an ...

. In 1975, Parton released an album entitled ''Snaps'' on the Buk record label, a short lived imprint of

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...

. A year later he re-emerged with a band called The Cyril Dagworth Players, where Parton masqueraded as Dagworth. They released one album, also co-produced by Parton and Hatch. Parton then sang a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...

's "

Isn't She Lovely "Isn't She Lovely" is a song by Stevie Wonder from his 1976 album, ''Songs in the Key of Life''. The lyrics celebrate the birth of his daughter, Aisha Morris. Wonder collaborated on the song with Harlem songwriter and studio owner Burnetta "Bunny" ...

" which he again co-produced with Hatch. When the original contracted singer (Marcel King from Sweet Sensation) was unable to re-create Wonder's vocal nuances, rather than dispose of the backing track, Parton sang the lead vocal, and it was decided to issue this version. It was released in 1976 and charted in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

in January 1977 for nine weeks, reaching number 4 (Stevie Wonder's original was not released as a single, but peaked at number 94 in the UK Singles Chart in 2012 based on downloads following his performance of the song at the

Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II The year 2012 marked the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II being the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. The only diamond jubilee celebration for any of Elizabeth's predecessors was in 1897, for the 60th an ...

). Lack of further

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

action saw Parton dubbed as a

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...

. He later worked as a songwriter and producer based in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

. He has generally sung and played guitar with local bands from

North Staffordshire The federation of Stoke-on-Trent was the 1910 amalgamation of the six Staffordshire Potteries towns of Burslem, Tunstall, Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Fenton and Longton into the single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. An anomaly in the history ...

Songwriting credits

*"Sad Sweet Dreamer" – Sweet Sensation *"Purely by Coincidence" – Sweet Sensation *"Belinda" – Coup De Cœur

Discography

Albums

*''Snaps'' – Buk Records – 1975 : All tracks written & arranged by Des Parton #"Lawman" – (5:36) #"Eyes as Sad as Yours" (4:20) #"All the Live Long Day" (4:48) #"Oh for the Glory" (5:53) #"Queenie" (4:14) #"Jane" (3:25) #"The Nigger's Coming" (2:48) #"Something for the Likes of You" (3:42) #"Longest Journey" (3:17) #"Vandal" (3:51)

Singles

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parton, David 1948 births Living people English male singer-songwriters English record producers English pop guitarists English male guitarists English pop singers People from Newcastle-under-Lyme